Scratch Programming Wiki:Frequently Asked Questions
Below is a list of frequently asked questions (FAQs) about the Scratch Programming Wiki or wikis in general. Not all questions can be included here, so feel free to ask any questions on this article's talk page by clicking here. General FAQs What is a wiki? A wiki is a website that anyone can edit. To let yourself and others enjoy this site to the fullest, please research the facts before posting anything on. Most wikis are open to the general public without the need to register any user account, as is the case for this wiki. For more information on wikis, check out Wikipedia's wiki article. A wiki? For Scratch? Yes. Everything on this site (or wiki) is entirely Scratch-related. We've got blocks, parts of the website, programming techniques, and much more. And the best thing about this wiki is that anyone can edit, including you! You do not have to be registered to edit, but you are encouraged to. Can't I just go on Wikipedia? While Wikipedia has an [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scratch_programming_language article on Scratch], it is very limited as to what they can add. Here, basically anything goes. Wikipedia's Scratch article is also designed so any reader can learn about the program, whereas this wiki is more for scratchers. The level of detail permissible and encouraged here would be rapidly deleted fancruft is not allowed on Wikipedia. Think of this as a RuneScape fansite in a wiki. Can I make articles about scratchers and projects? Articles about scratchers and projects are not allowed. Sorry, but these articles are often targets for vandalism (e.g. "this user was mean!"). Also, scratchers might not know there is an article about them on a site anyone can edit, causing them to be concerned about what people are writing about them. It is also very difficult to verify any information except for the raw info such as post count about any given scratcher, so it is best to not make articles about scratchers. Projects are also not allowed because there are so many projects, that there could practically be hundreds of pages on the wiki about projects, so they're best not made, and they're just spam. I found an article about a scratcher/project. What now? Simply contact an administrator and ask them to delete the page. How do I edit? Help:Editing is a good place to start. Practice formatting on the sandbox. If you still need help, ask an administrator or other experienced user or post on the forums. What is Wikia? Wikia are wiki communities creating free content with MediaWiki software. These wikis are hosted for free by Wikia, Inc., the company which runs the project. Anyone is free to start a new Wikia wiki in accordance with the creation policy and terms of use. Wikia was founded by Angela Beesley and Jimmy Wales, originally under the name "Wikicities", in October 2004. It celebrated its first birthday on 2 November, 2005. Wikicities relaunched as "Wikia" in March 2006. What's with the different coloured links? There are four different coloured links. *Blue links are internal links. They link to other pages on the wiki. *Purple links are visited links. If an internal link has been visited before, then it will become purple. *Red links are pages that have not been created. *Light blue links are external links. They link to pages on sites outside the wiki. What do the numbers mean in the recent changes? Some numbers can be seen in the recent changes after the time an edit was made. This number indicates how many characters were added or removed from the article. If the number is red, then characters were removed. If the number is green, then characters were added. If the number is in bold, it means that a lot of characters were either removed or added, indicating a major revision to the article. The coloured numbers, and the bold formatting, help indicate if users are vandalising articles or helping to contribute to them. For example: : 01:23 Scratch Programming Wiki:Frequently Asked Questions (diff; hist) . . (+1,000) . . User (Talk | contribs) would indicate 1,000 characters were added to this article by a user named User, whereas: : 01:23 Scratch Programming Wiki:Frequently Asked Questions (diff; hist) . . (-1,000) . . User (Talk | contribs) would indicate 1,000 characters were removed from this article by a user named User. What is the site name? Scratch Programming Wiki, Scratch Programming Wikia, Scratch Wiki, or Scratch Wikia? The official site name is the Scratch Programming Wiki, and it is incorrect to call it the Scratch Wikia, or the Scratch Programming Wikia. Although we encourage users to use Scratch Programming Wiki, using Scratch Wiki is acceptable. Accepted abbreviations include SW. How do I make an animation? Different than just taking a still-shot, a specific type of software is used to make an animation. Keep in mind that this wiki doesn't completely encourage animations, and this wiki does not at all encourage videos.d in an article. If an image is uploaded just to be used on auserpage, it will be deleted. Who owns this site? Who is the site leader? Officially, Wikia owns the servers that runs this site, but they essentially let us be independent as a community and do as we please. All of the content is owned or copyrighted by each of the individuals who have contributed to writing this content. For a full list of individuals who have helped to write any given page, click on the "history" button at the top of each page. But as for this site having a leader (elected or not), we have none. There are users who have different access powers (as mentioned above), and we have a founder, LukeTek, although, he is retired. The RuneScape Wiki is not run by a leader, webmaster, president, or anything of the sort. Is there a way to download a version of this site for offline use? All wikis are made available for download. These downloads are called database dumps, and Wikia generates these dumps on a weekly basis. To download individual and multiple pages, use . To dump the entire wiki, see under the "Database dumps" section. For more information about database dumps, see .